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REMARKS 



OF \ 

HON. A^f BACON, 



GKOROIA, 



RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY AS TO PAYMENTS OF MONEY 

UNDER THE CLAIM OF THE METHODIST 

BOOK CONCERN SOUTH, 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



r^ 



JUNE 18, 1898. 



W^3s.SHINGTOM, 

I 898. 



72390 






. ^LAIM OF METHODIST BOOK OONOEEN SOUTH. 

V <^ — 

^* The VICE-PRESIDENT. The Chair lays before the Senate 

, resolution No, 382, offered by the Senator from Massachusetts 

i^ [Mr, Lodge] , upon which the Senator from Georgia [Mr. Bacon] 

, IS recognized. 

** Mr. COCKRELL. Let the resolution be read for information. 

*S* The Secretary read the resolution submitted by Mr. Lodge on 

the 9th instant, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Committee on Claims be directed to inquire and report 
to whom the money was paid under the claim of the Methodist Boo^ Concern 
South; and also as to all circumstances connected with the passage of the bill 
providing for the payment of said claim, and with the subsequent payment 
of the money imder said act of Congress. 

Mr. BACON. Mr. President, it so happens that I was active in 
the effort to procure the passage of the bid referred to in the reso- 
lution. I was a member of the Committee on Claims in the Fifty- 
fourth Congress, before which the bill was at one time, and al- 
though it did not pass both Houses in the Fifty-fourth Congress, 
it was acted upon by that committee of that Congress. I was a 
very active supporter of the bill, as it will be remembered by the 
members who then belonged to the Committee on Claims. I sup- 
ported it because 1 thought it was an eminently just measure. I 
thought that not only had there been great injury and damage 
done to the claimants, but that in addition the Government had 
really received a benefit equal to the amount asked for in compen- 
sation to the Methodist Book Concern. The bill passed the Senate 
in the Fifty-fourth Congress, but failed to pass the House. 

In the Fifty-fifth Congressit was again introduced, and although 
I am not, in the present Congress, a member of the Committee on 
Claims, I was still an active friend of the measure. I not only- 
advocated it in the usual way, but I also did so in making repre- 
sentations to my colleagues of the Senate in the effort to get them 
to support it. Having done so, and being in a measure respon- 
sible for the passage of the bill, but, of course, not to the same 
extent as some others who had devolved upon them the leader- 
ship in the matter, I feel under the charges which have been made 
in the public press that it is due to myself to state what I know 
about the matter. 

1 had not the remotest suspicion that there was anyone repre- 
senting tUatbill before the Senate who had any pecuniary interest 
in its passage. I thought that those who were working for it were 
doing so because of their interest in the great and influential re- 
ligious denomination whifi^was specially interested in the passage 
of the bill. If there was anyone known around Washington City 
as a professional attorney .oonnected with the matter, I was not 
informed of the fact. As is known by all, the principal advocate 
outside of the Senate was a Mr. Stahlman. I knew him to be a 
man of large wealth. I knew him to be the husband of a very 
ardent and zealous member of the Methodist Church; and my im- 
pression and belief was that his interest in the matter was due to 
that relationship. Whether he himself was or was not a member 
of the church, I did not know, but my information was that his 
wife is an exceedingly zealous member of the church and was 
very much interested in the question of the passage of the bill. 
2 345i 



In the Fifty- fourth and in the Fifty-fifth Congresses I had never 
heard a suggestion that anyone was interested as a lobbyist or as 
an attorney in the passage of that bill and would get a large fee 
if the bill was passed, until a very short time before its passage — 
I have forgotten how long — when the suggestion was made to me 
by the junior Senator from Indiana [Mr. Fairbanks] right in 
that part of the Chamber back of the Republican side. He stated 
to me that he desired to vote for the bill, that he was friendly to 
its passage, but that he had been informed that there was a very 
large fee to be paid out of it to those who were pressing the matter 
before the Senate and before the House of Representatives, and 
that he would not support the bill if that were true. I replied to 
hiui that I did not think that could possibly be true, but that I 
would ascertain what were the facts and report to him. 

I immediately sought Mr. Stahlman, who was the only man I 
knew connected with the matter. I stated to him the report 
which was being circulated, and asked him whether or not it was 
true. He stated to me personally and emphatically that there 
was no contract of any kind for the paj^ment of a fee to anybody — 
to himself or to anyone else — out of the money which was sought 
to be recovered on account of this claim, adding that of course 
there were some necessary expenses which would have to be paid; 
and while the amount of those expenses was not indicated by him 
in any way, the impression left upon my mind was that they were 
comparatively insignificant, such expenses as would naturally be 
incurred by persons for hotel bills, traveling expenses, and things 
of that kind — absolutely necessary expenses. I state that as the 
simple impression left on my mind, but the statement was dis- 
tinctly made that there was no contract of any kind by which a 
fee would be paid out of the amount recovered. 

I immediately thereafter saw the Senator from Indiana [Mr. 
Fairbanks] and repeated substantially to him at the time — which 
he doubtless will remember — the statement which was made to 
me. I made the sarae statement to the Senator from Tennessee 
[Mr. Bate] . I think also to the Senator from Florida ( Mr. Pasco] 
and others who were prominent in the advocacy of this claim, that 
such representations had been made to me by Mr. Stahlman. 

Mr. FAIRBANKS. Will the Senator allow me? 

Mr. BACON. If the Senator will pardon me for a moment, the 
Senator from Tennessee recalls to my mind what I had forgotten, 
and that is that when the Senator from Indiana called my attention 
to the matter, before going to see Mr. Stahlman I saw the Senator 
from Tennessee and others, and told them of the report, and, at 
their instance, I went and saw Mr. Stahlman. After havi.ng had 
an interview with him, I came back and reported to the Senator 
from Indiana and to these several gentlemen . whose attention, with 
my own, had been called to the matter by the Senator from Indi- 
ana. I now jdeld to the Senator from Indiana, if he desires to say 
anything, and shall be glad to hear him. 

Mr. FAIRBANKS. I was merely going to suggest to the Sen- 
ator from Georgia that when his attention was called to the rumor 
that a fee was to be paid and that those Senators on this side who 
were favorably disposed toward the claim would oppose it if the 
rumor were true, the Senator from G-eorgia said, if I remember 
correctly, that he would himself oppose it if there was any truth 
in the report, but he was positive that there was no truth what- 
ever in it. 

Mr. BACON. I do not remember having said to the Senator 
that 1 would have so voted, but such undoubtedly would have 

34.i4 



been my action, and I have no doubt that I did so state, because 
that was my feeling. 

Mr. President, I do not think there has ever been any action by 
Congress in the allowance of a claim where there was a more gen- 
erous and beneficent desire on the part of Congress to do a good 
action; and that it was in the feeling that this was due to this 
great religious denomination, if not as a matter of strict law. as a 
matter which could properly be treated in this generous and lib- 
eral manner in dealing with a great religious denomination; and 
that the idea that it was a business transaction, to be lobbied 
through Congress, would have been abhorrent to the mind and 
thought of almost every Senator and Representative who sup- 
ported it. 

For myself, Mr. President, regardless of any personal relations 
or feelings, I should certainly have refused to have supported the 
passage of the bill if I had known that a third of the amount ap- 
propriated was to be paid to the promoters of the bill, and that it 
would be diverted from the beneficent purpose and end which -we 
had in view. 

Mr. President, when one comes to relate the substance or the 
words of a conversation ordinarily, there is frequently hesitation 
in one's mind as to the exact words spoken or even the substance 
of them, but that is not true where there are attendant circum- 
stances which fix the matter very strongly in the mind. If this 
conversation with Mr. Stahlman had been had with me in the or- 
dinary course, I might be in a position to doubt whether my recol- 
lection was entirely accurate; but it having been brought about 
in the way that it was by the suggestion first to me of the Senator 
from Indiana, and by the request of the Senator from Tennessee 
and others that I would go to see Mr. Stahlman and ask of him 
whether or not the rumor wa^s true, and my immediate return and 
reporting to those several Senators of what he said, leaves no pos- 
sible doubt about the entire accuracy of my recollection, and there 
is no possible doubt about it. 

As to the question of percentage, that did not enter into the 
conversation with Mr. Stahlman at all, because I had at that time 
never heard any specific percentage mentioned. The Senator 
from Indiana in reporting to me what he had heard, simply stated 
that he had understood it to be a very large fee, without stating 
any percentage. In my conversation with the Senator from Ten- 
nessee and others before going to see Mr. Stahlman, no mentioa 
was made of any percentage; and in my conversation with him 
(Mr. Stahlman) there was no mention of any percentage. It was 
simply a question whether or not there was a large fee to be paid 
to him or others out of the recovery on account of this claim 
of the Methodist Book Concern, and his assurance to me was that 
there was no such contract, but that there would necessarily be 
some expense to be paid. 

Mr. President, I do not desire to go further into this subject, as 
other Senators have expressed very fully their own individual 
views and the views of others. I can only state that I deplore and 
regret it extremely. I regret it because of the fact that a very 
large portion of this money has been diverted from the object we 
had in vievr when we passed the bill, and I regret it extremely on 
account of the mortification which must come to this very large 
class, this religious society, who are among the most respectable 
people in our section of "the country, and who would be among 
the last to be parties to any imposition by which money was to be 
gotten from Congress under anything like false pretenses. 
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